Pithy instructions for M’s birthday blanket

Published by norahgaughan

I’m sorry I wasn’t able to get to this sooner, but finally, I have time to write start on “pithy instructions” (as Elizabeth Zimmerman used to say) for the afghan I showed a while back, Margery’s birthday blanket. Be forewarned, we didn’t plan this blanket as something to be written out and published. In a greatly freeing exercise, Adina, Carla and I each poured our creative hearts into something for Margery without giving a thought to how difficult it might be to describe or reproduce. It was all about improvising as we went along. With that in mind, I can give you clues to how it all happened, but I don’t have an exact materials list or precise instructions of any kind.

First, I pick the pallette of Ultra Alpaca with Margery’s love of African textiles in mind:…pitch black…

…mustard…

…charcoal mix…

…tiger’s eye mix…

…couscous…

…brown rice…

…woodland mix

Each of us was aiming for a strip 16″ wide and 60″ long.
Adina used: brown rice, black, tiger’s eye mix and woodland mix for her collage of mitered squares. I used woodland mix, white, mustard, and black, and when the black ran out, charcoal mix for my textured stripes and blocks. Carla kept it simple with black, tiger’s eye mix and brown rice in her homage to Marianne Isager’s, “Sierra Leone” sweater (more about that later.)

Tomorrow I will attempt to explain the thought process behind the knitting and design the center section, knit by yours truly.

Your directions may be ‘pithy’, but I just like the chance to see the blanket again. It’s the combo of colors and the various stripes that pull it together and yet set off each section at the same time. The texture is like a secret bonus. This just shows what a little basic creativity (and boredom) can come up with.

Wow, what a great blanket in a terrific fiber. Ulta Alpaca and Ultra Alpaca Light are my new yarn loves. They have it all…great texture, fantastic stitch definition, just the right amount of twist so that the yarn doesn’t do the annoying split thing, colors to die for…My daughter and I bought several colors each to knit Baby Surprise Jackets for her 5th (not a typo) son. Neither of us had knit a BSJ before so we had a knit-along via phone/email. It was a lot of fun and the yarns were great to knit with. The colors were great nontypical baby colors…EZ would have loved the results. I also knit Sjartje’s Bootees to match. Several of the knitters I work with admired, touched, bought. I tell you, this stuff is addictive.